Systems and methods for purchasing products or services through the use of a symbology

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for conducting a transaction for a sale of products or services to a purchaser are disclosed. The methods and systems may perform the following operations: (1) receiving transaction information from a merchant; (2) generating data corresponding to the transaction information; (3) encoding a symbology with the data; (4) providing the symbology to the merchant for delivery to the purchaser; (5) receiving the data corresponding to a payment authorization encoded by the symbology from a mobile device; and (6) transferring funds from a purchaser&#39;s account to a merchant&#39;s account.

BACKGROUND

Recently, the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones and the like,has rapidly increased. This increase has resulted in part from theporting of technologies to mobile electronic devices that were oncelimited to non-mobile applications. Mobile technologies provide thepromise of a more efficient use of time by allowing interactions withother people and institutions at any time and place. One particularmobile technology demand of consumers is an increased ability tosecurely manage one's financial situation, such as, for example,transferring funds and other monetary instruments.

Current mobile device technology and the financial servicesinfrastructure to support the technology continues to provide moreconvenient, secure, and rapid attention to one's financial needs in themobile environment. However, further development in this field remainsnecessary to provide rapid transmission of funds between users, whichfurther allows for an instant or almost instant availability oftransferred funds. Accordingly, there exists a need for additionalsecure, easy-to-use systems and methods for transferring funds.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, a method of offering a payment option for a sale ofproducts or services may include (1) receiving, by a computing device, apayment request having payment information from a merchant for the saleof the products or services; (2) creating, by the computing device, datacorresponding to the request encoded therein; and (3) encoding, by thecomputing device a symbology with the data (4) transmitting, by thecomputing device, the symbology to the merchant for delivery to apurchaser.

In an embodiment, a method of offering a payment option for a sale ofproducts or services may include (1) receiving, by an electronic device,a payment request having payment information from a merchant for thesale of the products or services; (2) transmitting, by the electronicdevice, the payment request to a computing device; (3) receiving, by theelectronic device, data corresponding to the payment request from thecomputing device; (4) creating, by the electronic device, a symbologyencoding the data therein; and (5) transmitting, by the electronicdevice, the symbology to a purchaser.

In an embodiment, a method for sending a payment for a purchase ofproducts or services may include (1) receiving, by a computing device,data corresponding to payment information encoded by a symbology from amobile device; and (2) transferring, by the computing device, funds froma first account to a second account according to the paymentinformation.

In an embodiment, a method of conducting a transaction for a sale ofproducts or services to a purchaser may include (1) receiving, by acomputing device, transaction information from a merchant; (2)generating, by the computing device, data corresponding to thetransaction information; (3) encoding, by the computing device, asymbology with the data; (4) providing, by the computing device, thesymbology to the merchant for delivery to the purchaser; (5) receiving,by the computing device, data corresponding to a payment authorizationencoded by the symbology from a mobile device; and (6) transferringfunds, by the computing device, from a purchaser's account to amerchant's account.

In an embodiment, a system for conducting a transaction for the sale ofproducts or services may have a processing device and a non-transitory,processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processingdevice. The non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium maycontain one or more programming instructions that, when executed, causethe processing device to (1) submit payment information to a remotecomputing device; (2) receive a symbology comprising data correspondingto the payment information from the remote computing device encodedtherein; (3) provide the symbology to a purchaser; and (4) receive apayment confirmation from the remote computing device. The paymentconfirmation may include a verification that funds have been transferredby the remote computing device from a first account to a second accountdue to scanning, by a mobile device, the symbology to obtain the datacorresponding to a payment authorization and automatically submitting,by the mobile device, the data to the remote computing device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a perspective view of a first and second face of a mobiledevice according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts a perspective view of a third face of the mobile devicein FIG. 1 according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts a symbology according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of an illustrative communications systembetween mobile devices and a computing device according to anembodiment.

FIG. 5 depicts a block diagram of illustrative internal hardware thatmay be used to contain or implement program instructions according to anembodiment.

FIG. 6 depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for sending andreceiving funds according to an embodiment.

FIG. 7 depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for creating asymbology in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 8 depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for receiving asymbology input and transferring funds according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure is not limited to the particular systems, devices andmethods described, as these may vary. The terminology used in thedescription is for the purpose of describing the particular versions orembodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope.

As used in this document, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used hereinhave the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skillin the art. Nothing in this disclosure is to be construed as anadmission that the embodiments described in this disclosure are notentitled to antedate such disclosure by virtue of prior invention. Asused in this document, the term “comprising” means “including, but notlimited to.”

The following terms shall have, for the purposes of this application,the respective meanings set forth below.

An “electronic device” refers to a device that includes a processingdevice and tangible, computer-readable memory. The memory may containprogramming instructions that, when executed by the processing device,cause the device to perform one or more operations according to theprogramming instructions. Examples of electronic devices includepersonal computers, gaming systems, televisions and mobile devices.

A “mobile device” refers to an electronic device that is generallyportable in size and nature. Accordingly, a user may transport a mobiledevice with relative ease. Examples of mobile devices include pagers,cellular phones, feature phones, smartphones, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), cameras, tablet computers, phone-tablet hybriddevices, laptop computers, netbooks, ultrabooks, global positioningsatellite (GPS) navigation devices, in-dash automotive components, mediaplayers, watches and the like.

A “computing device” is an electronic device, such as, for example, acomputer, a server or components thereof. The computing device can bemaintained by entities such as financial institutions, corporations,governments, and/or the like. The computing device may generally containa memory or other storage device for housing programming instructions,data or information regarding a plurality of users, such as, forexample, contact information, personal information, account information,account balances, account numbers and service login information. Thecomputing device may also have data regarding product inventories,billing information, purchase order information, contracts, bills ofsale, and/or the like. The data may optionally be contained in adatabase, which is stored in the memory or other storage device. Thedata may optionally be secured by any method now known or laterdeveloped for securing data. The computing device may further be inoperable communication with one or more electronic devices, such as, forexample, the mobile devices described herein. The communication betweenthe computing device and each of the mobile devices may further besecured by any method now known or later developed for securingtransmissions or other forms of communication. The computing device mayfurther contain a registry of “authorized users” wherein the authorizedusers are users that have registered to use the systems and methodsdescribed herein. Users may obtain “authorized user” status by, forexample, providing contact information, account information, and/or thelike.

A “symbology” is a pattern, a symbol, an image or the like, as well asportions and combinations thereof, that is displayed on a substrate,such as, for example, the display depicted in FIG. 1. The symbologyprovides an optical, electronically-readable encoded representation ofdata. Symbologies can include, without limitation, one-dimensionalbarcodes, two-dimensional (2D) barcodes or three-dimensional (3D)barcodes. Examples of two-dimensional barcodes include data matrixcodes, quick response (QR) codes, Aztec codes, Maxi codes and the like.Symbologies can also include letters, numbers, punctuation and othersymbols. The symbology may be displayed on a display and may be of anygeometric shape or size. In this document, the terms “barcode” or“matrix code” may be used in the examples, but the term is intended toinclude any type of symbology.

An “application environment” is an embodiment of programminginstructions that direct the various components of each electronicdevice to execute a plurality of steps, such as those described in moredetail in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8. The application environment, when containedin a mobile device, may be referred to as a “mobile applicationenvironment.” Similarly, the application environment, when contained ina computing device, may be referred to as a “computing applicationenvironment.” The mobile application environment may be a softwareapplication or the like, such as a smartphone “app.” The mobileapplication environment may generally provide a means for reading,decoding, encoding and communicating the data encoded by a symbology.The computing application environment may generally provide a means forcommunicating with each mobile device, a means for reading, translatingand transmitting data, and a means for completing other tasks, asdescribed in greater detail herein.

A “merchant” is a user that sends a symbology and receives a payment inexchange for products and/or services in accordance with an embodiment.The merchant can be an individual, a corporation, a financial servicesprovider, a government or any other entity that sells products and/orservices. Conversely, a “purchaser” is a user, such as a person or anentity, that receives a symbology from the merchant and sends a paymentin exchange for products and/or services in accordance with anembodiment. While this disclosure relates generally to a single merchantand a single purchaser, those skilled in the art will recognize thatmultiple merchants and purchasers may be involved in a transactionwithout departing from the scope of this disclosure. Both the merchantand the purchaser must be authorized users to use the applicationenvironment, and both must have an account that is recognized as onethat is capable of disbursing and/or receiving funds, as described inmore detail herein. Examples of accounts are not limited by thisdisclosure and may include, for example, savings accounts, checkingaccounts, money market accounts, brokerage accounts, credit accounts,certificates of deposit, electronic wallet accounts and/or pooledaccounts wherein funding for the pooled account is obtained from acombination of one or more of the accounts described herein. Theaccounts may be held with, for example, financial institutions, banks,credit bureaus, building societies, credit unions, trust companies,mortgage loan companies, insurance companies, pension funds, brokers,underwriters and investment funds. The accounts may further contain someform of identifier, such as, for example, an American BankersAssociation (ABA) routing transit number (RTN), account numbers, or anyother identifier that may be used for identifying a user and/or a user'saccount.

FIG. 1 depicts a perspective view of a mobile device, generallydesignated 100, according to an embodiment. The mobile device may have afirst face 105 and a second face 115. The first face 105 may have adisplay 110. The display 110 may generally be a component for displayingimages, text, video and the like. Examples of displays may include, butare not limited to, electroluminescent displays, electronic paperdisplays, vacuum fluorescent displays, light emitting diode (LED)displays, cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, liquid crystal (LCD)displays, plasma display panels, digital light processing (DLP)displays, and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.

The mobile device 100 may be configured to generate a symbology and/ordisplay the generated symbology on the display 110, as described in moredetail herein. The mobile device 100 may generate the symbology by usingany methods now known or later developed for creating and encodingsymbologies. Alternatively, the mobile device 100 may receive thesymbology from another mobile device and/or a computing device.

The mobile device 100 may further have one or more user interfacecomponents 120, which may be positioned on any face of the device,including, but not limited to, the first face 105 and the second face115. The one or more user interface components 120 may generally beconfigured to elicit one or more commands to the mobile device 100 whenactuated. Examples of user interface components 120 may include keypads,switches, buttons and/or the like.

As an alternative to, or in conjunction with the one or more userinterface components 120, the display 110 may further include a touchsensitive screen, wherein the touch sensitive screen may act as a userinterface component. The touch sensitive screen may receive contactbased inputs from a user, such as from a user's fingers. The touchsensitive screen may be adapted for gesture control, thus allowing for auser to tap, pinch, swipe or provide other similar gestures to elicitcommands to the mobile device 100. The touch sensitive screen mayfurther be capable of sending touch commands to the processing device.Examples of touch sensitive screens may include, but are not limited to,resistive touchscreens, capacitive touchscreens, infrared touchscreensand/or other technologies now known or later developed. The mobiledevice 100 may also be adapted to receive commands via body gestures,voice, audio signals, device movement and/or the like.

FIG. 2 depicts a perspective view of a third face 150 of the mobiledevice 100, according to an embodiment. The third face 150 may generallyhave an optical component 160. The third face 150 may also optionallyhave an audio component 155 and/or an illumination component 165.

The optical component 160 may be any suitable component capable ofreceiving an optical image and transmitting image information to othercomponents of the mobile device 100 for processing, such as, forexample, a camera. The optical component 160 may further have an abilityto adjust its focal length and aperture in such a manner that wouldallow it to zoom and properly focus upon an intended object to beimaged. Such ability may be through mechanical components (such as anoptical zoom) or programming (such as a digital zoom). This adjustmentmay define an “optimal focal distance,” or a range of distances in whichthe mobile device 100 may be properly positioned from the intendedobject to be imaged to achieve a clear image.

While the optical component 160 is depicted on the rear face of thepresent example, persons skilled in the art will appreciate that theoptical component 160 may be positioned at any location on or in anyface of the mobile device 100, or may even be external to the mobiledevice 100 and connected by any means of communication, including, butnot limited to, physical cable communication such as universal serialbus (USB), wireless radio communication, wireless light communication,or near field communication technology.

The optical component 160 may further be configured to receive anoptical image on the display of another mobile device, such as, forexample, a symbology displayed on the display of the other mobiledevice, as described in greater detail herein.

The optional illumination component 165 may be utilized in any lightconditions to assist the optical component 160 in completing any of thetasks described herein. Additionally, the illumination component 165 maybe independently activated to turn on or off at specific points in time,such as when additional lighting is necessary to capture an ideal image.Other features of the illumination component 165 may include dimming,strobe, constant on and/or the like.

The illumination component 165 may contain any suitable light sourcecapable of providing illumination, including, but not limited to,magnesium-based flashes, xenon-based flashes, fulminate-containingflashes, light-emitting diode (LED) flashes and the like. While thepresent figure depicts the illumination component 165 as beingintegrated with the mobile device 100, it may be appreciated that theillumination component 165 may be a separate component in communicationwith the mobile device 100, such as USB based flashes, hot shoe basedflashes, remote slave flash units, or other similar devices.

The optional audio component 155 may be adapted to emit audio tones andsignals. Such audio tones and signals may be used to instruct the userto complete various steps as described herein, and may further indicateto the user that an image has been received by the optical component 160by emitting a beep, click or other audio signal. Additionally, the audiocomponent 155 may be adapted to receive audio signals. Such audiosignals may include, for example, voice commands from a user.

The mobile device 100 may further have an ability to connect to acommunications network, as described in FIG. 4 herein. The types ofcommunications networks that may be used in accordance with thisdisclosure are not limited in any manner, and may include anycommunications network now known or later developed. For example acommunications networks may include, but is not limited to, theInternet, an intranet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area networks(LAN), a wireless local area networks (WLAN), a storage area networks(SAN) and/or the like.

The configuration of the mobile device 100 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 ismerely an example of a mobile device, and persons skilled in the artwill appreciate that other configurations and embodiments will bepossible without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of a symbology, generally designated 300, thatmay be used in accordance with an embodiment. The symbology 300 may bedisplayed, for example, on the display 110 of the mobile device 100(FIG. 1) or affixed to a substrate.

The symbology 300 may be generated by a mobile device 100, or may begenerated by any other electronic device, such as for example, acomputing device. In instances where the symbology 300 is generated byanything other than the mobile device 100, it may be transmitted to themobile device 100 for further use, such as for display upon the display110 (FIG. 1), addition to other documents and/or elements, or forscanning, reading or decoding.

The symbology 300 may be encoded with data that may generally be used bya computing device to gain access to secured information. Examples ofsecured information may include, but are not limited to, informationregarding a user's banking account, an amount of money to be sent and/orreceived, a date and time of transmission of money for future payments,and/or the like. The symbology 300 may further be encoded with otherdata, such as, for example, information regarding a product or aservice, information regarding a merchant, purchase payment information,information about a bill and purchase order information.

The information encoded in the symbology 300 may further be encrypted.In instances where the information encoded in the symbology 300 isencrypted, the symbology 300 may only be read by certain symbologyreading devices and/or applications, such as those that contain ormaintain access to an encryption key or another similar means fordecrypting the information encoded in the symbology 300. Encryption maybe completed by any encryption method now known or later developed.Examples of encryption may include, but are not limited to, manualencryption, transparent encryption, symmetric encryption, asymmetricencryption and the like.

As an alternative to being encrypted, the symbology 300 may be readableby any symbology reading device and/or application. However, theinformation encoded within the symbology 300 may appear to a user of thesymbology reading device and/or application as a random placement ofcharacters, numbers, symbols and the like. However, if the symbology 300is read using the application environment, the application environmentmay recognize the characters, numbers, symbols and the like and mayperform or complete tasks accordingly, as described in more detailherein.

The symbology 300 may be a standalone image, or may be incorporatedwithin another object, such as, for example, an additional image, text,icons and/or the like. In instances where the symbology 300 isincorporated within another object, the other object may provide atleast a portion of the information encoded by the symbology 300.

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of communications between one or moreelectronic devices and one or more computing devices. A communicationsnetwork 400 may serve as an information highway interconnecting theother illustrated components. The communications network is not limitedby this disclosure, and may include any communications network now knownor later developed. Examples of communications networks may include, butare not limited to, the Internet, intranets, wired networks and wirelessnetworks. One or more electronic devices 405, such as mobile devices,computing devices and the like may connect to the communications network400. In embodiments where a plurality of electronic devices 405 areconnected to the communications network 400, each electronic device 405may be configured to communicate with other electronic devices via thecommunications network 400. A computing device 415 may also be connectedto the communications network 400, and may optionally connect throughthe use of one or more communications ports 410.

FIG. 5 depicts a block diagram of illustrative internal hardware thatmay be used to contain or implement program instructions, such as theprocess steps discussed herein in reference to FIGS. 6-8, according toembodiments. A bus 500 serves as the main information highwayinterconnecting the other illustrated components of the hardware. CPU505 is the central processing unit of the system, performingcalculations and logic operations required to execute a program. CPU505, alone or in conjunction with one or more of the other elementsdisclosed in FIG. 5, is an illustrative processing device, computingdevice or processor as such terms are used within this disclosure. Readonly memory (ROM) 510 and random access memory (RAM) 515 constituteillustrative memory devices (i.e., processor-readable non-transitorystorage media).

A controller 520 interfaces with one or more optional memory devices 525to the system bus 500. These memory devices 525 may include, forexample, an external or internal DVD drive, a CD ROM drive, a harddrive, flash memory, a USB drive or the like. As indicated previously,these various drives and controllers are optional devices.

Program instructions, software or interactive modules for providing theinterface and performing any querying or analysis associated with one ormore data sets may be stored in the ROM 510 and/or the RAM 515.Optionally, the program instructions may be stored on a tangiblecomputer readable medium such as a compact disk, a digital disk, flashmemory, a memory card, a USB drive, an optical disc storage medium, suchas a Blu-ray™ disc, and/or other non-transitory storage media.

An optional display interface 530 may permit information from the bus500 to be displayed on the display 535 in audio, visual, graphic oralphanumeric format. Communication with external devices, such as aprint device, may occur using various communication ports 540. Anillustrative communication port 540 may be attached to a communicationsnetwork, such as the Internet or an intranet.

The hardware may also include an interface 545 which allows for receiptof data from input devices such as a keyboard 550 or other input device555 such as a mouse, a joystick, a touch screen, a remote control, apointing device, a video input device and/or an audio input device.

FIG. 6 depicts a general transaction process according to an embodiment.The process may involve a plurality of users, such as, for example, apurchaser and a merchant. Each user may have an electronic device, asdescribed herein. Each electronic device may have a processor and amemory containing programming instructions in the form of theapplication environment.

The purchaser may indicate to the merchant a desired product and/orservice 605. This may be generally completed in any type of salestransaction setting, such as, for example, interne sales transactions,telephone sales transactions, and in-person sales transactions.Alternatively, the merchant may not have direct knowledge of the desiredproducts and/or services, and, particularly in the case of web-basedsales, may be provided with an identifier of a virtual “shopping cart.”The shopping cart may contain one or more of the desired products and/orservices, and may be identified to the merchant with only the identifierthat, when accessed by the merchant, contains general informationregarding the shopping cart, such as, for example, a number of items inthe shopping cart, prices of the individual items, whether each item istaxable, shipping costs for each item, and a total price. The identifieris not limited in scope and may include any type of identifier, such asfor example a session ID, a transaction code and the like.

The merchant may provide payment information, which may include, forexample, a payment amount to the computing device 610. The paymentamount may include an amount agreed upon between the merchant and thepurchaser or a cost of products and/or services. In instances where avirtual shopping cart is used, the payment amount may be the amountspecified by the identifier to the merchant. The payment amount mayfurther specify any type of funds, financial instruments or currency.Examples of financial instruments may include, but are not limited to,securities, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, derivative contracts,commodities, and any other fungible, tradable asset. The merchant mayoptionally specify additional parameters 615, such as, for example, atime the funds should be sent, limit options, expiration dates,automatically recurring transfers, identification of the products and/orservices to be purchased/sold, shipping information, shipping costsand/or the like.

The application environment may record additional information about theelectronic device at the time the merchant enters the paymentinformation 610. Examples of such additional information may include,but is not limited to, positional coordinates (e.g., GPS coordinates), adate and/or a time the payment information was entered, the type ofelectronic device used, user name and password information used toaccess the application environment, and/or the like. This informationmay be transmitted to the computing device for storage in the memory atthe time the payment information is sent.

The computing device may store the payment information and theadditional information in memory, and may designate portion of theinformation stored in the memory as secured and only accessible by thecomputing device. Another portion may be designated as unsecured andaccessible by other devices, such as, for example, one or more of themobile devices. The secured portion may generally contain sensitiveinformation, such as account numbers, account balances, sensitivepersonal information and the like. The unsecured portion may generallycontain non-sensitive information, such as names, email addresses andthe like. The computing device may use the received information togenerate data that corresponds to the information 620. The data is notlimited by this disclosure, and may contain, for example, a uniqueidentifier that may only have a meaning with respect to the computingdevice.

Once the data has been generated, the computing device may generate asymbology encoding the data therein 625. As an alternative, thecomputing device may transmit the data to the merchant, who may thencreate the symbology. Once the symbology has been generated by thecomputing device 625, it may be transmitted by the computing device tothe merchant and/or the purchaser 630. The purchaser may receive thesymbology 635, which may come directly from the computing device or fromthe merchant, or the purchaser may retrieve the symbology from a webpageor a substrate and/or the like. Reception of the symbology may be by anymeans now known or later developed, such as, for example, receipt viaemail, receipt via short message service (SMS), receipt via multimediamessaging service (MMS), retrieving from a website, retrieving from abill, retrieving from an invoice, retrieving from a purchase order andthe like. Alternatively, the symbology may be transferred to anothermedium, such as by printing to a substrate, which may then be receivedby the purchaser.

Once the purchaser has received the generated symbology, he/she may scanthe symbology 640 to authorize payment. The purchaser may generallydisplay the symbology, such as on a substrate or on a display asdisclosed herein, and may scan the symbology. Scanning the symbology maybe completed by any means now known or later developed for viewing,reading and/or decoding symbologies. In an embodiment, scanning may becompleted through the use of any electronic device, such as, forexample, the mobile device depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. In addition toscanning, the purchaser may optionally complete any other additionaltasks 645, such as, but not limited to, sending a message, settingpayment terms, confirming payment, identifying products and/or servicesto be purchased, and/or the like. The mobile application environment mayalso record information about the mobile device at the time of scanning,such as, for example, positional coordinates (e.g., GPS coordinates), adate and/or a time the scanning took place, the type of mobile deviceused, user name and password information used to access the applicationenvironment, and/or the like.

Upon scanning, the data encoded by the symbology may be transmitted tothe computing device 650 for funds transfer. Any other additionalinformation entered by the purchaser and/or information recorded by themobile application environment may also be transmitted to the computingdevice, along with the data encoded by the symbology.

The merchant and/or the purchaser may optionally receive a confirmationthat payment has been sent for the products and/or services 655, andonce payment has been sent, the products and/or services may bedelivered to the purchaser 660. Delivery may be completed by themerchant, or may be completed by a third party, such as, for example, asupplier.

FIG. 7 depicts a process that may be carried out by an applicationenvironment in response to inputs received by a merchant on anelectronic device. The process may first involve receiving a pluralityof inputs from the merchant 705. The inputs may be in the form of aphysical interaction with the electronic device containing theapplication environment, such as touching any number of user interfacecomponents, a touch screen and/or the like, as described herein.Alternatively or additionally, the inputs may be in the form of audiocommands, gestures, physical movement of the electronic device and/orthe like. The plurality of inputs may generally provide information tothe application environment regarding the payment, such as, but notlimited to, merchant information and purchaser information, such asnames, account numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and/or the like.The plurality of inputs may further provide other information to theapplication environment such as, but not limited to, an amount to betransferred, whether it is a recurring payment, whether there is a limitprice for the payment, whether there is an applicable time period duringwhich the payment may be sent, whether there is an expiration date forsending payment, a description of the products and/or services to berendered and/or the like.

The application environment may transmit the information received fromthe inputs to the computing device 710, such as by using a secure meansof communication, as described in greater detail herein. In addition,the application environment may transmit any additional information thatwas recorded at the time the inputs were received, as described ingreater detail herein. The application environment may store theinformation received from the user inputs, as well as other informationand the corresponding symbology, in a memory, such as a database. Thememory may be located in the computing device and may only be accessiblevia the computing application environment through the use of securemeans of communication, such as via encrypted communication.Alternatively or additionally, the memory may be in a remote location,such as a remote server, and may only be accessible via the computingapplication environment through the use of secure means ofcommunication. The computing device may further generate data thatcorresponds to the stored information. The data may be, for example, aunique transaction code, as described in more detail herein. Thecomputing device may further generate a symbology encoding the datatherein, as previously described.

Once the data and/or the symbology has been generated, the applicationenvironment on the electronic device may receive the data and/or thesymbology from the computing device 715.

The symbology may optionally be displayed on the electronic devicebefore it is sent to the purchaser, so as to present the merchant with anumber of options before sending to the purchaser 720. Examples ofoptions for the merchant may include, but are not limited to, reviewingthe symbology before sending, providing a personal message to go withthe symbology, printing the symbology, delaying the sending andproviding information regarding products and/or services to be rendered.Alternatively, the merchant may never see the symbology; rather, it maybe automatically sent to the purchaser. Once the symbology has been sentto the purchaser, the application environment on the purchaser'selectronic device may be used to complete a series of steps 725 asdepicted in FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 depicts a process that may be carried out by an applicationenvironment in response to inputs received by a purchaser on anelectronic device. The purchaser may arrange an electronic devicecontaining the application environment in such a manner so as to allowthe application environment to scan the symbology 805. Scanning thesymbology may be by any method of scanning, as discussed in greaterdetail herein. The application environment may further decrypt and/ordecode the symbology to obtain the data encrypted and/or encodedtherein. The data encrypted and/or encoded in the symbology may contain,for example, an identifier that, when provided to the computing device,acts as an authorization to transfer funds in accordance with thetransaction details, as previously described herein.

The computing device may search the memory, such as a secure databasestored on the secure computing device, for information corresponding tothe decrypted/decoded identifier data from the symbology 810. Adetermination may be made as to whether a match exists between theidentifier data from the symbology and the information in the database815. If a match is not found, the application environment may notify theuser of the error 820, and may prompt the user with an option to rescanthe symbology 825. Lack of a match may be due to any number of reasonsand is not limited by this disclosure. Examples of some reasons mayinclude an improper scanning of the symbology, a symbology that is notintended for use in the methods and systems described herein, asymbology that was previously scanned resulting in a transfer of fundsand the like. If the user chooses to rescan the symbology, the processmay repeat 805. If the user does not choose to rescan the symbology, theprocess may end.

If a match between the identifier and the information stored in thedatabase exists, the application environment may optionally provide thepurchaser with a confirmation of the transaction details 830 before thefunds are transferred, so as to allow the purchaser to verify the termsof transfer. The application environment may automatically add funds tothe merchant's account 835 and at substantially the same time or a shorttime before or thereafter, deduct the same amount of funds from thepurchaser's account 840. In addition to the funds transfer, theapplication environment may deduct any other amounts, such astransaction fees, or add any other amounts, such as rebates, from thepurchaser's account, the merchant's account, or both accounts.

The application environment may optionally provide a confirmation to thepurchaser 845 and the merchant 850. Confirmation may be in the form of adisplayed message on the display of the electronic device, an emailmessage, an audio alert, a haptic feedback alert, a telephone call, amailed printout, a facsimile transmission and/or the like.Alternatively, or in addition, the purchaser and/or the merchant mayaccess a source, such as, for example, a website or a customer servicephone number, to confirm that payment was sent and/or received.

The application environment may optionally complete one or more otheractions 855. Examples of other actions may include, but are not limitedto, automatically sending products and/or services to the purchaser,marking a bill as paid, confirming payment according to a bill of saleand confirming payment according to a purchase order.

Various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, oralternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systemsor applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipatedalternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may besubsequently made by those skilled in the art, each of which is alsointended to be encompassed by the disclosed embodiments.

1. A method of offering a payment option for a sale of products orservices, the method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, apayment request from a merchant for the sale of the products orservices, wherein the payment request comprises payment information;creating, by the computing device, data corresponding to the request;encoding, by the computing device, a symbology with the data; andtransmitting, by the computing device, the symbology to the merchant fordelivery to the purchaser.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the datacomprises a unique identifier that allows the remote computing device tomatch the symbology to the payment request.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the payment request is stored as request data having a securedportion and an unsecured portion in a memory of the computing device. 4.The method of claim 3, wherein the secured portion of the request datais only accessible from the memory by the computing device.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the symbology comprises one or more of amulti-dimensional bar code and a quick response (QR) code.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein the payment information comprises at least one ofmerchant information, purchaser information, desired products orservices, a cost of the products or the services, a tax amount, and atotal price.
 7. A method of offering a payment option for a sale ofproducts or services, the method comprising: receiving, by an electronicdevice, a payment request from a merchant for the sale of the productsor services, wherein the payment request comprises payment information;transmitting, by the electronic device, the payment request to acomputing device; receiving, by the electronic device, datacorresponding to the payment request from the computing device;creating, by the electronic device, a symbology encoding the datatherein; and transmitting, by the electronic device, the symbology to apurchaser.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data comprises a uniqueidentifier that allows the remote computing device to match thesymbology to the payment request.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein thepayment request is stored as request data having a secured portion andan unsecured portion in a memory of the computing device.
 10. The methodof claim 9, wherein the secured portion of the request data is onlyaccessible from the memory by the computing device.
 11. The method ofclaim 7, wherein the symbology comprises one or more of amulti-dimensional bar code and a quick response (QR) code.
 12. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the payment information comprises at leastone of merchant information, purchaser information, desired products orservices, a cost of the products or the services, a tax amount, and atotal price.
 13. A method for sending a payment for a purchase ofproducts or services, the method comprising: receiving, by a computingdevice, data encoded by a symbology from a mobile device, wherein thedata corresponds to payment information; and transferring, by thecomputing device, funds from a purchaser's account to a merchant'saccount according to the payment information.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein the data comprises a unique identifier that allows thecomputing device to retrieve detailed payment information.
 15. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the payment information is stored as paymentdata having a secured portion and an unsecured portion in a memory ofthe computing device.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the securedportion of the payment data is only accessible from the memory by thecomputing device.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein the symbologycomprises one or more of a multi-dimensional bar code and a quickresponse (QR) code.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein the paymentinformation comprises at least one of merchant information, purchaserinformation, desired products or services, a cost of the products or theservices, a tax amount, and a total price.
 19. A method of conducting atransaction for a sale of products or services to a purchaser, themethod comprising: receiving, by a computing device, transactioninformation from a merchant; generating, by the computing device, aunique identifier corresponding to the transaction information, whereinthe unique identifier is encrypted and configured to be decrypted onlyby the computing device; encoding, by the computing device, a symbologywith the unique identifier; providing, by the computing device, thesymbology to the merchant for delivery to the purchaser; receiving, bythe computing device from a purchaser's device, data encoded by thesymbology from a mobile device, wherein the data includes the uniqueidentifier and corresponds to a payment authorization; decrypting, bythe computing device, the unique identifier to determine the transactioninformation; and transferring funds, by the computing device, from apurchaser's account to a merchant's account according to the transactioninformation.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: providing,by the computing device, a verification that the funds have beentransferred from the purchaser's account to the merchant's account tothe merchant, wherein the verification provides the merchant with proofof funds transfer for completing the transaction.
 21. The method ofclaim 19, wherein the purchaser's account is associated with the mobiledevice.
 22. (canceled)
 23. The method of claim 19, wherein the symbologycomprises one or more of a multi-dimensional bar code and a quickresponse (QR) code.
 24. The method of claim 19, wherein the transactioninformation comprises at least one of merchant information, purchaserinformation, desired products or services, a cost of the products or theservices, a tax amount, and a total price.
 25. A system for conducting atransaction for the sale of products or services, the system comprising:a processing device; and a non-transitory, processor-readable storagemedium in communication with the processing device, wherein thenon-transitory, processor-readable storage medium contains one or moreprogramming instructions that, when executed, cause the processingdevice to: submit payment information to a computing device; receive asymbology from the computing device, wherein the symbology comprisesdata corresponding to the payment information encoded therein; providethe symbology to a purchaser; and receive a payment confirmation fromthe computing device, wherein the payment confirmation comprises averification that funds have been transferred by the computing devicefrom a first account to a second account due to: scanning, by a mobiledevice, the symbology to obtain the data; and submitting, by the mobiledevice, the data to the remote computing device.
 26. The system of claim25, wherein the first account is associated with the mobile device. 27.The system of claim 25, wherein the symbology comprises one or more of amulti-dimensional bar code and a quick response (QR) code.
 28. Thesystem of claim 25, wherein the data comprises a unique identifier thatdirects the remote computing device to retrieve the payment information.29. The system of claim 25, wherein the payment information comprises atleast one of merchant information, purchaser information, desiredproducts or services, a cost of the products or the services, a taxamount, and a total price.